Artist VS Craftsman: How to avoid another Lindy Hop “Style Wars”

Posted by on Apr 10, 2012 in Inspiration | 7 comments

Artist VS Craftsman: How to avoid another Lindy Hop “Style Wars”

 

Most of the dancers that I’ve seen and been inspired by the last 23 years come from two distinct parts of one puzzle.  Simply put.  One being the Artist who create things, and the other being the craftsman who generally preserves that which is created.  The first has a gift to easily access their imagination and share it with others. The second has a gift to analyze, and codify that which is created to help preserve the art for future generations.   From my observation,t his same wonderful dynamic exist in the Lindy Hop community.

 

However, the climate in the community may not understand the purpose in both, and anytime the purpose for something is misunderstood error is inevitable.  I’m writing this article to help you discover the ARTIST or CRAFTSMAN in yourself so that you like I over time can add your special contribution to the dance.  The following paragraphs will shed light on my perspective of this amazing balance that makes up the forever evolving dance we call the Lindy Hop.

 

The CRAFTSMAN

I love the CRAFTSMAN.  Being a dancer that leans more on the side of the ARTIST, I realized when I jumped into the lindy hop that I needed dancers who understood clearly how the mechanics of the dance functioned in the current day.   I had to avoid my creative peers for a season, so that I could understand how the common language of the now worked, which in turn would allow me to dance with the highest amount of people no matter what style or region on the dance floor today.

 

The CRAFTSMAN for me was a God send.   In my observation within the lindy hop context, many of the C’s that I’ve taken dance from all started their dance journey learning how to Lindy hop when there was no common language.  They had to develop the common language after the roles and purposes of the artist and craftsman were misunderstood.  This error lead to the infamous “style wars” at the beginning of the 21st century that I happily missed. The Craftsman’s  greatest strength is in knowing the “principles behind the movement.”

 

Craftsman have such an important role to fill.   In my opinion, it should be focused on duplicating the principles to empower dancers with a common language general enough so that they can add their style.  In addition, the Craftsman can learn to stretch themselves by learning from the ARTIST.

 

Craftsman normally are not praised for the razzle dazzle in their movements, but more for the quality and clarity that hold them together.  These dancers are the preservers and tend to be more comfortable refining than creating.  They are great assets in keeping the social dancing aspect of the culture alive.

 

The ARTIST

 

These individuals tend to “create” movements drawn from burst of inspiration. They generally have amazing visualization skills and are very comfortable not knowing all the details during the creative process.   They generally are the ones who inspire people into Lindy Hop.  These people are the ones many dancers watch for inspiration.  These dancers would rather ask for “forgiveness” than “permission.”

 

In many cases, some of the things they do in the moment normally are rejected, then ridiculed, and eventually accepted.  Sometimes their work is under appreciated until many years later.   As an artistic dancer much of my inspiration now comes from watching craftsmen, so that I can “improve” technically on my artistic creations.

 

I’m also inspired by other Artistic dancers who indirectly push me to keep growing creatively and ignore many of the limits we subconsciously impose on the dance whenever we stop taking risk.  (See article How to find the magic moments in Jack and Jill’s)  Hellzapopin’ is such a fantastic example of an ARTISTIC expression that Lindy Hoppers use today.

 

If it were not for this video most of the craftsman wouldn’t have anything to codify. If it were not for the craftsman who preserved the “essence” of the dance, artist like me wouldn’t have a template to express myself creatively within current language of the dance and expand it further today.

 

WORKING TOGETHER

When I jumped into Lindy Hop I asked different teachers who I should study to master  the basic mechanics that would allow me to dance with most of the people in the culture today.  They were so generous and pointed me to a handful of dancers.

 

I developed a CA chart (Craftsman/Artist) so that I could monitor my growth, and see how far I developed into myself over time.  My chart looked like this: Skye Humphries,  Mike Roberts, Peter Strom, Dax Hock, Jeremey Oth, Todd Yanacone, Nick Williams, Kevin St. Laurant, Michael Faltesek, Max Pitruzzella,  Thomas Blancharz, Nathan Bugh.

 

The chart goes from extreme CRAFTSMAN to extreme ARTIST from my perspective.  After gaining some knowledge I would grow a little more and stretch myself as the movements became a part of my body.  The more I learned from the craftsman, the faster I could unlock myself as an ARTIST.  The more I mastered a shape highlighting a technique, the more inspired I became by new movements from the dancers next on my chart.

 

Once that occurred I continued in my modeling knowledge until the movements became a part of my natural dance vocabulary.  I would continually oscillate between learned knowledge and activity knowledge on the dance floor until I started dancing the techniques with my heart instead of my head.   This is the critical point where the real me, “The ARTIST” started to emerge.

 

Once I was unlocked my ARTISTIC eye made me sensitive to seeing movements from that perspective when I watched other dancers.  This helped develop in me a respect for every dancer no matter what level they are on, since I could then be inspired by anyone.  In fact most of my new ideas come from shapes I see beginners make that they don’t fully understand, craftsman who help me polish a concept I create, or artist who mess up on an idea that in return spawns a new idea in me.

 

One is not better than the other, they work in perfect harmony if both understood their role.  In fact, if the artist were liberated to express themselves no matter how unpolished or unpopular, the dance would actually grow more rapidly.  More people would be inspired by their creations, and artistic dancers as a result would be unlocked everywhere to push the climate for new ideas in an environment that welcomes them.

 

Craftsmen would also be inspired by this to bring more clarity to those new ideas so they could be taught to others.  If the craftsmen were liberated to be themselves they would be able to focus on the principles that allow dancers to express themselves with “anyone” more clearly.  They have an even more important job to emphasize the technique to free dancers fundamentally and not to confine them stylistically. Principles are like the imagination, and they let you build new things from them.  If craftsmen focus on them, they would be more effective in empowering the next generation faster and with more simplified clarity than the previous generation.

 

Think of the ARTIST as the accelerator and the CRAFTSMEN as the one who steers.  Also think of the CRAFTSMEN as the accelerator and the ARTIST as the one who steers in a new direction.  Either way both aspects must be recognized, identified and respected in order for the dance to stay alive.  Here is an example of all of them working together:

IN CONCLUSION

I am an artist, and love learning the mechanics from craftsman so that I can grow.  Most of the time I enjoy creating by myself by visualizing without a partner, but I’m also inspired by other artist to push my limits creatively.  I encourage dancers to recognize where your strengths are held, learn from the opposite side and you will liberate yourself even more.

For me the purpose of recognizing both is to help grow and preserve the dance, along with creating a more liberating and harmonious culture for both groups of people.   My voice as one who appreciates both is to help others recognize the inevitable underlying purpose in both, and how important their contribution impacts the things we love so much about the dance.

When we embrace the strengths about both artist and craftsmen, we give each other permission to be different and predictable without undermining each other.

Discover in you which personality you are and learn to respect and grow from the other as you mature in the dance. We all must strive to identify the principles that make both function as one.  Share this article with those you feel who could benefit.  Have a stress free week!

 

Jamin Jackson

  • Barbara

    Great Thoughts !!! I can appreciate the Craftsman — and so enjoy the artistic portion of dance. Very well spoken!

  • http://tinpanband.com Jesse Selengut

    Hi Jamin,
    So good to meet you this week in Barcelona!
    This article is excellent and mirrors, I feel, the climate amongst musicians in the swing world as well. Some bands definitely come from a more CRAFTSMAN perspective. These bands are interested in playing the music exactly the way it sounded on certain records. They revel in the technical details and mirroring the expression of the classic works as recorded. A band like the Stockholm Swing All-Stars comes to mind that played at Snowball recently. Or back in New York, Grandpa Musselman & His Syncopators. Obviously good music, and good dance, is going to have both elements of art and craft but these two bands are certainly on the CRAFT side as you describe it above. It’s a wonderful thing to experience and I have so much respect for the codification, research and execution that these kind of performers are able to embody.
    I, as you, it would seem, identify more with the artist side of things. I tend to focus on what hasn’t been done yet or rather focus on my own personal interpretation or impression of the art form that I am experiencing. For me, the music is way to experience my self in the moment and to share in the moment with others that are around me by creating something new in that moment. One artist that exemplifies this for me is the great trumpet player Don Cherry. Don felt that if he didn’t make a certain number of mistakes on any given performance or recording that he wasn’t doing his job as an artist – that is: stretching the boundaries of what he knew to be possible. He took this philosophy to such an extreme that as soon as he would begin to feel comfortable with a trumpet or a mouthpiece he would change horns or change mouthpieces to keep everything purposefully off balance. There is so much excitement for me in his music because the undiscovered is being created in each moment. And like you say, the listener just has to forgive the occasional flubbed note because the over all energy is positively inspiring.
    That much being said, technique and pride in technique are of huge value. You have to have a language with which to communicate! You have to have your technical act together if you are going to be respected and heard. Craftsmen/women need artists to keep what they do fresh and in the moment. A routine can become “routine” if it is not imbued with some kind of risk. The artist needs the craftsmen to create, codify and clarify the language that is being played with. Without content or clarity of language the artist will not be understood at all.
    When I practice, I practice drills, routines, scales, technical studies and the like so when I step into the roll of the artist I can create with the confidence and language of a craftsmen. That much being said, I make a hell of a lot of mistakes when I play… back to work. :)

  • Jyrki

    Excellent article! Being more of a (wannabe-)artist of a dancer rather than an analytical technician, I’ve been wondering something: Do you need to be a craftsman to teach dancing to others? Is the artistic aspect merely something that you either have or you don’t, but it just needs to undergo a certain amount of initial “craftsmanning” before it can really emerge as “your own style” and be taken into good use? In other words, should artists stick to performing, choreographing, pushing boundaries, and being generally watchable on the social dance floor, and that way inspiring others – but teaching “dancing” and movement should be trusted to craftspeople who know how to break movements down to smallest pieces and re-build them using technical principles?
    Myself, I basically quit teaching years ago when I realized I sucked at codifying and analyzing mechanics. Still, I wish new dancers were encouraged to come out of their shells, develop their own styles, and use their imagination on the floor. How could the creative part be taught to others if (appreciated) teachers are mainly craftspeople rather than arrrtistes?
    Needless to say, the best dancers and teachers are those who master both sides – regardless of which path they’ve gone to reach the goal. My hat goes off to those who have great natural talent in one aspect but who have worked hard over the years to also cover the rest!

    • Jamin Jackson

      Great question! I was waiting for someone to ask it.

      In my opinion you are either fundamentally one or the other, which in turn is identified by your approach to creativity. Both sides do have the capacity to create. The craftsman may take a little longer in many cases, do to their instictive need to work with something that is already available to refine. Ultimately, they like the artist cross the scary line of creating out of inspiration. From my experience, the time gap between how artist and craftsman create have to do with how comfortable they are being uncomfortable in the creative process, and their ability to use their brain to codify the inspiration “after” they have created it instead of during the creative process. They must be more comfortable knowing a vague what than needing an absolute how when they start the process.

      Hope that can give you a little more of my perspective on things

      -Jamin

  • Dansotée

    Fantastic article! I’ve never looked at dancing (or any art for that matter) from this perspective but it really makes sense to me. Very well thought-out ideas and arguments throughout!
    As to give one possible approach to the question asked above about teaching:
    I have been teaching Lindy Hop for quite some time now and my teaching partner and I have a fairly different approach to both teaching and dancing, and very different strenghts. In the Craftsmen/Artists differentiation he is definitely more on the craftsman side and I’m definitely more on the artist side. And it’s fantastic for classes!
    He is great in breaking down movements to the core and in explaining exactly the science behind all things swing and lead/follow, in being the solid rock and anchor of the class, and in answering all kinds of complex questions smoothly and with a firm, calm voice.
    I in comparison am much better in getting people excited, in singing rather than counting, in giving them enough energy to make it through class, in coming up with funny exercises for them to loosen up and enjoy the dance and in generally providing an atmosphere that makes it possible even for beginners to start being creative because they know we love it when we can learn from them, too.
    Both of us also have a bit of the other side in us of course (as I think we all do) but for classes I can really recommend to find a teaching partner that complements you and your teaching style so that everyone in class can learn better no matter their preferred learning method.

    Thank you for taking the time to write such amazing articles, Jamin!
    A.

  • Yossef

    I’m liking so much of what I see from you, Jamin. Your attitude, your writing, your thoughts, and yes, your dancing are all so refreshing, comforting, and interesting. This particular article led me to comment because it speaks to one of the points I’ve put a lot of thought towards. And it’s something I discuss with others often. And when I do, I usually bring up Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud.

    I think everyone remotely interested in art should read Understanding Comics. You don’t have to care about comics. You don’t have to care about visual art. You don’t have to want to create. You just have to care a little bit. And really, you don’t have to read the whole book (though I think it’s a good idea). You really just have to read one chapter: chapter seven, titled “the six steps”. And if that’s too much, the meat of the idea is just ten pages in the middle of that chapter, the bit that details the six steps and the path that (in the author’s words) “the creation of any work in any medium will always follow”.

    The end of that section has a split related to your crafstman/artist paradigm (which I strongly agree with and relate to, mostly on the craftsman side with some artistic flare-ups from time to time). He boils it down to the main question being whether the artist (as in the creator of art, not your “artist” label) wants to say something about life through art or whether the message is about art itself. In other words, if the driving goal is the form of the artwork, the artist is an explorer and “creators who take this path are often pioneers and revolutionaries — artists who want to shake things up, change the way people think, question the fundamental laws that govern their chosen art.” If the driving goal is to use the art to say something about life, the artist is a storyteller and these creators “devote all their energies to controlling their medium, refining its ability to convey messages >effectively.” It seems to me that there’s a strong connection between your craftsman/artist and McCloud’s storyteller/explorer. And neither choice is permanent nor pure, merely being labels on axes that measure where we are at any specific moment.

    If my attempt to relate the idea intrigued you, let me repeat my strong recommendation to pick up the book and give it a read. Scott McCloud says it better than I can.

    • Jamin Jackson

      I’m glad you enjoyed the read. There are many people out here who may say it a little differently but do understand that the dichotomy exist. I’ll check out the book.

      -Jamin